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snickerdoodlles · 4 months

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one of my most formative fandom experiences was a comment i had gotten on a fic i wrote for a halloween themed fandom event.

this was for a manga/anime, so the fic was a general ghost story obviously set in Japan. the beginning of it involved a pizza delivery and while writing it, i had spent like 30 minutes just double checking tipping customs and the types of pizza they serve and even fell down a wikipedia rabbit hole looking up the history of pizza in Japan.

now, i just like the research part of writing, i do stuff like this because i have fun doing it. and while i was writing this particular fic, i had laughed at myself for my 30 minutes of googling that amounted to 2.5 offhand lines in a 3500 word fic. i didn't think anyone would care about or even notice those particular details except for me, especially since none of them were relevant to the ghost part of this ghost story.

except, when i had sent this fic to a Japanese friend, the first thing she said to me about it was "OH MY GOD YOU GOT THE PIZZA RIGHT"

and that was the moment when it had really clicked for me. what had just been 30 minutes of effort on my part had become a moment of relief for her. my friend was far more used to reading ethnocentric fic that ranged from unintentional ignorance to outright superiority against part of her culture (the original story's culture no less). and even with the "innocent" ignorance (heavy quotes on that) far outstripping any outright maliciousness, that's still so many people saying her culture was not worth learning about. the pizza in my story was a small detail, but i had cared enough to put in some effort to check it. and for her, coming from a fic experience where her norm was bracing for hundreds of inaccuracies born of ignorance, especially at that time after a flood of stories centered around "Halloween as a cultural holiday in the US" premises instead of the "Halloween is a commercial gimmick in Japan" reality, seeing someone put in some effort even for minor story details meant something to her.

this also throws me back to the discourse that arose in a french show fandom a few years ago because there were a lot of fic authors that wrote 'dollars' instead of 'euros'-- but when people brought this up as a prevalent issue across the fandom but an easy one to fic/watch out for, many of these writers instead pushed back to complain that they were posting stories for free and it wasn't that big of a deal. which really upset a lot of people, but then this upset was met with a new wave of indignation that people needed to 'get over it' because they're writing fic ~just as a hobby~. but, even if 'dollars' instead of 'euros' wasn't a big deal, by digging in their heels about the issue, they were saying "your culture isn't worth even five minutes of my time or effort."

I've been thinking about these things lately because the ethnocentrism in Thai drama fandoms is...staggering. just over the turn of the year, there were waves of Christmas fic for Buddhist characters. and just. Christmas in Thailand is a tourist thing at best. sometimes a pop culture gimmick for international audiences or maybe an offhand high school thing to blow off steam between midterms. it's not a cultural thing. and even if a character is a part of the Christian minority, a Christian Thai's holiday customs and culture are going to be vastly different than a Christian's customs in the Americas or Europe. and while the Christmas fic is at least finished for now, I'm already bracing myself for the Easter fic wave that also seems to pop up for Thai dramas. it's so frustrating to see this sort of cultural overwrite all the time, especially since most Thai drama holiday works aren't about Thai holidays.

but the thing that really got me bristling about all of this again was i saw a post the other day where op said that they weren't going to write [thai drama] fic because they don't know much about thailand.

what an absolutely appalling statement to make.

google is right there. wikipedia is free. you don't even have to leave tumblr or AO3 to learn more because there are Thai natives in fandom who write essays to explain common elements of their culture. hell, even just watching these Thai stories and considering the values and messages imparted by the narrative framework and story lens tells you something about that culture. the audacity to look at a culture different from your own and say "this is not worth my effort or time to learn anything more about," are you kidding me?!?

the messages and values of a story tell you about the writer's values, which are going to carry their cultural values, beliefs, and biases. Thai culture is going to be heavily relevant to any Thai story, even the ones that aren't explicitly about Thai culture/customs/etc. (hell, Thai bl/gl as a genre alone-- just the fact that queer Thai writers are making these stories in Thailand's current political climate is highly political, even the "fluffy" ones that don't seem to make outright political statements.) to approach any story like it was made in a vacuum is to remove the writer(s)' culture and values and to overwrite them with your own.

especially because this is fandom. these are the lowest stakes to learn! it sucks to see people say things like "but i'm scared i'll get something wrong" and hold up that fear as a shield to justify their ignorance. no one's expecting anyone to get every detail right, especially not for a culture that isn't theirs, just make an effort to learn something new about it. pick out something that caught your eye as different to learn more about and see where it leads you.

and for the record--making a mistake trying to broaden your horizons is a far, far better thing to do than to superimpose your culture on everyone else's because you're scared to confront your ignorance.

edit: check out this reblog thanks

#fandom

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talizoraa · 9 months

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Some early game Baldur’s Gate 3 tips

- Once you’ve rescued Shadowheart from her pod on the Nautiloid, you can press K on pc (idk about controller) to see her spell list and change her prepared spells. Swap out one of her spells for Command. Now you can use command to make the devil drop his sword and easily go and pick it up. Even if you can’t use it, this is a very strong early game sword even for your party members and there’s no reason not to do this. Once he’s dropped his weapon it’s easier to kill him, but still very tough. He gives a lot of xp though, so it’s your choice. (Thanks to my gf for this she’s a genius)

- Long rest as often as possible. Especially if you care about your companions personal stories and your relationships with them. As you progress the story and recruit your party members, camp events get added to a queue with different urgency attached to them. If you don’t long rest enough, you will miss a lot of these. Some of them are important for quests, some are just for learning more about your companions, but you can get a lot of approval if you do them, if that’s something you care about. The majority of the time there is no downside to long resting frequently, with camp supplies being very easy to come by. There are a small number of quests that will change after you long rest, but by far fewer than I thought there would be. If you’re worried, you can f5 to quick save before long rest. On my earlier saves, I used long rest very sparingly and missed a lot of events I would’ve liked to have seen. (Also obviously restoring spell slots and hp and stuff)

- If you are not playing a cleric or a druid, and don’t feel like constantly having Shadowheart in your party, you can go here to loot a necklace with Guidance on it. Guidance is extremely good for dice rolls and I absolutely recommend picking this up.

- This last ones mostly just for fun, once you reach the Emerald Grove, head up the path to the east from the entrance and you can meet Alfira the tiefling bard. Talk to her and offer to play with her, pass all the difficulty checks and you’ll learn to play musical instruments. There’s also a chest here with an item for bards inside. Head north east from her to fight some harpies and rescue a tiefling boy, who will give you access to the kids hideout. Again these aren’t super important, just helpful, and the instrument proficiency is fun. These will NOT be available after you complete the main quest for the zone. (Image is from google, don’t know what the other markers are)

- Oh also, these are pretty well known but just in case. As I said, F5 to quicksave, F8 to quickload. Hold ALT to see almost all lootable objects. Hold SHIFT to see enemy’s cones of vision.

These are just a few tips that would have helped me out had I known them sooner, that I’ve hardly seen mentioned anywhere else. There’s more obvious ones, like making sure you recruit Wyll and Karlach before moving on to act 2, as they’re easily missable, and fully exploring the crash site to find all the available companions. Feel free to let me know if there’s any more I should add or reblog with your own!

#baldurs gate 3 #baldur’s gate 3 #bg3 #alfira #bg3 tips #long post #bit of a long one sorry

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bright-and-burning · 5 months

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i was pretty sure in-competition vs out-of-competition drug testing had different rules from following track and field doping scandals. and i was right! and then i accidentally dug a little too deep into doping regulations so. here's some fun info on anti-doping & motorsports (& how allowed doing drugs is) below the cut (you could perhaps call this a ~primer~ if you wanted)

i'm going off of the FIA's anti-doping regulations (appendix a to the international sporting code, this is from 2017 but it gets the gist across (and doesn't require a download). i checked it against the 2021 version and nothing i referenced changed significantly; click on the "appendix a" link here to download the 2021 version) and the world anti-doping code international standard prohibited list (link is to the 2024 list but i don't think things have changed very much over the years).

the appendix was only added to the international sporting code in 2010, so i can't speak to anything before then.

the FIA link is 69 pages long and also not an easy read BUT from what i can tell their testing works the same as any other international sport's (so if you're looking for a simpler read on the general process than the FIA's code, check out this wiki page on biological passports and the world anti-doping agency (WADA)'s pretty simple anti-doping process page here).

substances

the important part (to me, at least) is article 4: prohibited list and international standards. this is the bit that says what drugs you can and can't do.

it essentially boils down to "the WADA list applies. and also a few other things."

the few others things here are specifically alcohol and beta-blockers. alcohol for drunk driving reasons, beta-blockers because they lower heart rates and reduce tremors (they're banned in many sports that require high accuracy, like motorsports but also archery and golf).

the WADA list is broken down into two main parts: substances & methods prohibited at all times, and substances & methods prohibited in-competition

substances prohibited at all times

these are things like anabolic agents, peptide hormones, growth factors, beta-2 agonists, hormone and metabolic modulators, and diuretics and masking agents (you can explore more in depth here if you're interested).

basically, what i typically think of when i think of doping. the stereotype of bodybuilders taking steroids, you know. not the fun stuff.

substances prohibited in-competition

these are probably what people are more interested in hearing about (especially fic writers). these are stimulants, narcotics, cannabinoids, and glucocorticoids. i will admit to never having heard of glucocorticoids by that name before this (they are steroids used to treat asthma, inflammation, allergies, etc).

these include things like cocaine, adderall and other stimulants commonly used to treat adhd, ecstasy, weed, heroin, oxycodone, and so on.

once again see here for more info; if you're looking for something specific, go to the index and use what page it points you to as a guide. ecstasy, for example, is not listed by name as ecstasy on page 14 (stimulants prohibited in-competition but not out of competition), but if you look in the index, the ecstasy listing points you towards page 14 (where it's referred to by its 'chemical' name), marking it as a stimulant only prohibited in-competition. you might have to google your drug of choice to find other names for it.

in-competition, by the way, is defined as "the period commencing just before midnight (at 11:59 p.m.) on the day before a competition in which the Athlete is scheduled to participate until the end of the competition and the sample collection process." ie 11:59pm the night before right up to after you pee in the cup. assuming competition includes free practice, this period would be wednesday at 11:59pm to sunday after the race.

obviously you can get a therapeutic use exemption, where your doctor says "yeah they need this banned substance for this reason." it's more complicated than that, and there's a lot of paperwork and different agencies' approval involved, but that's the gist of it. this is, for example, how simone biles is allowed to take adhd medication despite those being prohibited in-competition.

the testing method itself isn't explicitly identified in the 2021 code, but it mentions blood and urine testing as options in a footnote. the 2017 code treats urine testing as the automatic option (and lays out the specifics of how that should occur quite explicitly), and blood testing as an alternative or optional addition.

different drugs stay in your system for different lengths of time. cocaine can show up on saliva & blood tests for up to two days, and on urine tests for up to three. weed's urine testing window can be as long as 30 days (depending on frequency of use). and so on. so risk levels vary!

sanctions stuff

you can get hit with sanctions for tampering with tests, evading tests, etc, but i'm gonna talk about specifically sanctions for testing positive because i feel like that's more interesting and relevant than going into sanctions for missing tests three times in twelve months (but if you are interested, read through the FIA's code).

they make special note of what they call "specified substances." these are substances that are "more like to have been consumed or used by an athlete for a purpose other than the enhancement of sport performance" aka fun drugs as opposed to performance enhancers. pretty much all of the in-competition banned ones are specified substances. notable exception here is cocaine. cocaine (and some other stimulants) are not specified substances. you can see which specific substances are specified here.

the definition of "specified substances" above is pretty much just used for sanctions reasons. it kind of helps determine who the burden of proof falls on.

nitty gritty sanctions stuff

the rest of this post gets into the nitty gritty of sanctions (feel free to skip this bit). motorsports has so few violations at the top level (like, to the point where anti-doping lab people are quoted as being genuinely amazed by how clean everyone is) that this kind of thing hasn't really played out (or at least, not since the FIA started working with WADA. or as far as i know). this is different from just about every other sport i've Ever paid any kind of attention to.

this part would honestly make a really solid flowchart. it makes for a pretty rough primer. it is so confusing, but hopefully i make it even a tiny bit more clear than the FIA's code.

there's quite a few cases here, and they're all kind of complicated:

if the violation involved a specified substance, the FIA has to prove it was intentional use to hit the violator with a four year "period of ineligibility," which i will refer to as a ban throughout for ease.

if the violation does not involve a specified substance, the athlete has to prove it wasn't an intentional use to avoid a four year ban.

the two cases above are what i see as the general cases. if a violation doesn't fall under any of the below cases, then it falls back into those. they're the "if not anything else, then these."

a violation for a substance only prohibited in-competition can be ruled not intentional if it is a specified substance and the athlete can prove that it was used out-of-competition, or if it is not a specified substance and the athlete can prove it was used out-of-competition in a context unrelated to performance.

aka (this is an extremely handwavey and flippant example for demonstration purposes only) if they test positive for ecstasy (specified substance), but they can prove they used it at the club for a good time, then it's not intentional. if they test positive for cocaine (not a specified substance), but they can prove they used it at the club and specifically for fun not for performance, then it's not intentional.

if intent isn't there, and none of the other options i go into below apply, you get a two year ban (as far as i can figure it out).

intentional use is specifically "meant to identify those athletes who cheat," basically doing it knowing it was a rule violation/carried a risk of being a rule violation and disregarding the risk (paraphrased from the FIA).

if the violation involves a substance of abuse as specified by WADA here, and the driver can establish that the use occurred out-of-competition and wasn't related to performance, then they get a three month ban. furthermore, if the driver completes an FIA-approved substance of abuse treatment program, then that ban will be reduced to one month.

if the violation involves a substance of abuse and it occurred in-competition, but the driver can prove it wasn't related to performance, then the violation'll be considered not intentional, and is therefore (as far as i can tell) subject to a two year ban.

if the driver can prove they bear no fault or negligence (literally Zero), then whatever ban they would've gotten will go away. this is REALLY hard though; the document states that it "will only apply in exceptional circumstances, for example, where a Driver could prove that, despite all due care, he or she was sabotaged by a competitor."

Conversely, it says that this no fault case wouldn't apply if: a) they consumed a mislabeled/contaminated vitamin or supplement (drivers are responsible for what they ingest), b) their personal trainer/physician gave it to them without explaining what it was (drivers are responsible for their choice of medical personnel), c) sabotage of their food or drink "by a spouse, coach or other person within the driver’s circle of associates (drivers are responsible for what they ingest and for the conduct of those persons to whom they entrust access to their food and drink)." In these scenarios, however, they could potentially use the no significant fault or negligence cases outlined directly below.

if the violation involves a specified substance (but not a substance of abuse), and the driver can prove no significant fault or negligence, then the consequences will be somewhere between a reprimand and a two year ban depending on how at fault they are.

if they can prove both no significant fault/negligence AND that the detected substance came from a contaminated product, then the consequences will be between somewhere between a reprimand and a two year ban depending on how at fault they are. (as an aside, i'm pretty sure this is the out that shelby houlihan tried to use when she tested positive for an anabolic steroid and blamed it on a pork burrito from a food truck).

to be able to use this out, the driver has to prove separately that a) the substance came from the contaminated product and b) they aren't significantly at fault.

these are, as far as i can tell, all of the potential violation cases the FIA's code has articles for. they align with other sports' regulatory bodies' rules, in my (limited) experience.

i hope this was at least a little interesting and informative! (it certainly was for me). thanks for reading :)

several disclaimers here: i make NO promises abt this being perfectly accurate bc it IS me interpreting the FIA's code. and this is nowhere near my area of expertise (i am not a doctor or a lawyer or anything else relevant to this. i am just a nerd with adhd and a whole lot of time). but i did my best ! and i think it's a solid stone's throw at accurate.

and also to be clear if they do coke in fic on thursday night or whatever for the plot or the vibes im still here for it. this is not me requiring pitch-perfect accuracy on doping violations in fic (and all of this info will probably drain out of my brain by saturday); it's (hopefully) a resource!

#hey friends adhd goes crazy. i found myself reading thru anti-doping regulations at like 1am and decided to be Productive about it #have fun go crazy do cocaine but only out-of-competition!#f1 primer #i Guess. i still hesitate to call it that.#mine #mine.primer

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miceonpluto · 11 months

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Anomaly 888

Part 1 Part 2

Next part is finally out!! Biggest thank you to my best friend and editor Leeks, this fic wouldn’t be nearly as good without her help🫶🏾Little translation not for characterization purposes, “sin duda” in this context means “without a doubt” not “definitely” as google translate will lead you to believe hehe Let me know what you guys think PLEASE feel free to go insane in the comments its so fun. Also let me know if you wanna be on my tag list for this fic!! Okay now enjoy hehe

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••●── 🕸️⋅🕷⋅🕸️ ──●••

“Miguel don’t you think you went a liiiiiitle too far?” A woman’s voice said from somewhere above you.

“If little anomalía here hadn’t tried to run away I wouldn’t have needed to snatch her like that.” You recognized that voice from earlier. It was the same smooth baritone that taunted you while they took you from your home. His name is Miguel?

“She passed out dude. You could’ve at least tried to explain before you brought her here.” The woman's voice was much closer this time, it sounded as if she were right next to your ear. You groggily opened your eyes and all you saw was red. Where even was here? Your head spun and you groaned as you tried to stand on numb legs, so numb that you had to lean against the wall for support. Once you felt stable enough, you stood up straighter and looked around. A small lady in pink heart glasses and a white trench coat suddenly hovered above your nose, she was so close that you had to cross your eyes to properly look at her. “Oh you’re awake! Hiii~” She chirped. You recoiled and hit the wall behind you and just as quickly as she appeared, she was back outside of the glass.

You hadn’t realized how confining this room was until then, all four walls were so close that you couldn’t fully outstretch your arms in any direction. “Where am I!” You shouted to the two blurry silhouettes that stood behind the red walls. “Jess, she’s awake.” The deep voice you now know belonged to a man named Miguel called out and a third person walked up, now there were two people and…a pixie? All ogling you like you were a caged animal at the zoo. The tallest one walked closer and tapped the glass twice with his knuckles and the frosted glass became transparent. You could see each person clearly, a black woman with a sleek red jacket stood in front of the cell, gently caressing her round stomach. The little pixie with glasses sat on her shoulder with her legs crossed, she tilted her head and smiled at you when she caught your eye. Next to the two of them, was him. His previously red eyes were now brown and looking down at you indifferently. You took note of his large biceps, now feeling a little better about how easy it was for him to take you away. He was wearing a skin tight suit that reminded you of SpiderWoman’s back home, he even had a similar spider stretching across his broad figure, though his design was a bit different. He had his hands on his hips and quirked his brow when you furrowed your own and shouted at him.

“Who the hell are you!? How’d you get in my room?! Why were you going through my stuff?! You abducted me!” You felt your blood boil as you got more and more angry at the absurdity of the situation. You glared at him and his slightly irritated stare only angered you more. “Are you done?” He asked, visibly unamused. “I-“ You started to speak again but he cut you off.

“Great. I’m Miguel O’Hara. My accomplice here is Jess,” The dark skinned woman nodded at you.

“The other is Lyla, my artificial intelligence companion.” Miguel continued.

“Awwwww you think I’m your companion?” Lyla crooned.

“Shut it. I’m being professional.” Miguel snapped and Lyla giggled in response. He rolled his eyes and continued.

“I’m only going over this once.” He said and took a deep breath, “You’re in Nueva York in the year 2099, this is my universe. I’m this city’s one and only Spider-Man. You belong to earth888, you’re here because your SpiderWoman reported you as a potential anomaly. There can only be one, and only one spider in each universe and for some reason, yours had two, you being the second. Your very existence could disrupt the canon and cause a multiversal collapse so I took you from your universe.” He rambled off so fast and with so much information it made you lightheaded. Multiverse? What does he mean my SpiderWoman? The audience of three could tell you were dazed by the info dump and Miguel sighed. He pinched his brow and pressed a few buttons on the watch he was wearing and the red walls that surrounded you began to slowly recede into the floor below.

“You just need to see it for yourself.” He said as he reached for your wrist. You jerked it back, “See what? Where are you taking me?” You demanded to know. He grabbed your wrist and slipped a white band on it. “What is this?!”

“A day pass. It’ll keep your atoms from glitching out and killing you.” He sighed as Lyla teased him. “I told you to give her the debrief in her room.” She hovered over to him and poked his cheek.

That reminded you, “Hey! How’d you get in my room?!”

“I followed you.”

“How’d you find me?”

“Your spider led you to me.”

“She…” You hesitated, “She wouldn’t do that! If you really are from another universe, how’d you get into mine?”

“With this.” Miguel held up his watch, its little monitor beeped and flashed quietly.

“What is it?”

“None of your business.” He said condescendingly.

“Except for the fact that it is because it’s the entire reason you were able to abduct me and bring me to wherever the hell I am now!” Your voice raised at the end of your sentence.

“All in a day’s work.” He completely blew you off, thwipped a web onto your shoulder and pulled you along with him.

“You don’t have to leash her like a dog Miguel.” Jess scoffed while walking along his other side.

“Maybe if she didn’t yap like one I wouldn’t have to.” He quipped. The four of you walked out of the dim room and down a long hallway. The chatter of many many voices began to get louder the further you walked, the bright light from the end made you squint and you had to blink a few times to adjust to your new surroundings. When they did, you were absolutely floored.

The hallway had opened up to a gigantic building that seemed to go up forever. Hundreds of spider people of every shape and size could be seen in every direction. Some swinging from the support beams, some standing and talking on the walkways that ran along the wall and up towards the ceiling, a lot of them greeted Miguel as you walked past. Other people stopped and stared at you being pulled along behind him, and you suddenly became very aware of how ridiculous you looked being led around like an animal. You quickened your steps so you could stay at Miguel’s side and give the web enough slack to hopefully be hidden. He looked down at you and began to speak. “Everyone here is a spider from their perspective universe. In each universe, they’re the only one. But here…” He stopped and looked around, “here they’re not. They have others like them.” You looked up at him and when his eyes met yours, you could see a glimmer of sadness sparkling somewhere beneath the surface. “I started this organization to unite the multiverses and keep everything in order so when people like you pop up, it’s my job to look into it.”

“But…I was just trying to help.” You said.

He sighed, “We all are.” He held his watch up to a keypad on a large gray door and it beeped and shone green. His voice hardened as he continued, “But that’s not your job.” The doors slowly opened and the four of you stepped inside.

��So I should just let people get robbed? Killed? Even if there’s something I can do to stop it?”

“There’s nothing you could do to stop it anyways. You couldn’t even catch the robber on 64th yesterday.”

“But-Hey! How’d you know about that?!”

Miguel ran his hand down his face. “I was there. Your spider was the robber and the woman she “stole” from was her girlfriend. They picked up her purse right after you left.”

You twiddled your fingers and tried to come up with a good excuse. “Well at least I got her purse. And the robber was…I was just having an off day.” You played with the hem of your sleeve and looked at the ground.

He stepped in front of you and looked at you earnestly. “We can’t afford to have off days.”

You hummed, not sure what to say next. He gently tugged at the web, urging you to follow him to a wall of labeled storage lockers. He stopped at one labeled Anomaly 888. “If you were there when that happened…” you thought out loud, “You stole my suit!”

“I confiscated it.” He said without looking down and typed in the code for the locker. A888. Pretty on the nose. Inside was the duffle bag from the night before, Miguel took it out and handed it to Jess, who had already sat down in front of the many large monitors in the center of the room.

“Run diagnostics on this stuff. Scan every page and have her suit analyzed.” He said while unzipping the bag and pulling your suit out. You were relieved to see it was in perfect condition. Jess nodded and laid your things out on a large table while Lyla began to scan your suit with her phone.

“I have some things to take care of, I’ll be in my office if you need me.” He said and pulled you with him, you took one long, sad look at your suit before the doors shut behind you. You tried to memorize the path you took to get to the office. Left, left, left, then a right. There’s a bathroom, and a restaurant is around the second corner. Your stomach growled. Whatever’s in there smelled so good. “You hungry?” Miguel cocked his head towards the restaurant. “You heard that? Over all these people?” You asked, feeling your face flush.

“I hear everything.” He said with a subtle smile and led you to the menu.

“Hey boss! What’ll it be?” A spiderman in a white suit wearing a chef's hat bounced up to the counter and leaned on the counter.

“Just a coffee for me. And whatever she wants.” Miguel said, gesturing to you.

“Ooooh~ who’s the lady? I haven’t seen her around here before.” The chef sang.

“Oh! I’m-“ you started to introduce yourself but Miguel cut you off.

“She’s not staying.”

The chef seemed to get the memo and asked “Well Miss Not Staying, what can I getcha?” He asked with a wink.

“I’ll just have a turkey sandwich please.” The chef disappeared into the kitchen and came back with your orders surprisingly quick. You and Miguel thanked him and continued on your way to the office.

Right, left, right. He led you through two intricately carved metal doors and flipped a switch when they closed behind you. Evening light flooded the room as the large window blinds rolled themselves up. His office was gorgeously furnished, bookshelves lined three of the walls, all completely stacked with stacks of books, papers, magazines, notebooks, and various other trinkets. Huge potted plants lined the perimeter of a cozy looking blue couch that sat up against the other free wall. Above the couch were various picture frames, filled with what looked like children’s drawings. A grand mahogany desk and plush arm chair sat in the middle of the room on top of an extravagant rug. The desk itself was pretty bare, save for a single picture frame and a long rectangle that ran horizontally along the far side of the desks perimeter. “This is beautiful.” You said breathlessly. “Infinite universes, infinite spidermen, one of them is bound to be an interior designer.” He said and sipped his coffee. You began to walk towards the couch but you stepped on a little toy car and fell backwards. Miguel pulled the web on your shoulder up and set you back on your feet. “Thanks.” You exhaled. He hummed in response. You looked down and carefully tiptoed over colorful blocks and little dolls strewn about the floor. You sat in the middle of the couch while Miguel got settled in at his desk. “Do you have kids?” He froze and looked up at you with an expression you couldn’t quite place. Grief? Anger maybe? “What?” He asked with an edge that made you uneasy. “I just assumed…because of the toys on the floor and stuff.” You said, almost apologetically.

“Oh.” He said flatly and peered down at the toys. “Those are Mayday’s toys. Peter B’s daughter.”

You nodded your head and looked around the room awkwardly while taking the occasional bite of your sandwich.

He pressed a button on the desk rectangle and a large floating screen hummed to life above a keyboard that was being projected onto the wood. He began typing furiously and you sank further into the couch as boredom began to set in. “Why am I even here?”

He glanced at you briefly then diverted his attention back to the screen. “Would you rather be back in solitary?” You shook your head. “Then cállate. Stop complaining.” He sighed and ran his hand through his hair, “I can't let you out of my sight until I figure out what to do with you.”

“So I have to sit here and wait for you to be finished?”

“Dios mío!“ He snatched a random book off of the shelf next to you and plopped it in your lap.

An Extensive History of the Discovery and Exploration of the Multiverse. You flipped through the thick book and scanned the tiny words. It could have been an interesting read if it wasn’t full of scientific words that hadn’t yet been invented in your timeline. You tried to lay on your side to get more comfortable, but the web connecting you and Miguel tugged his hand down. “Sorry.” You muttered as he scowled at you and snapped the string off of him.

Soon the sun had fully set and the bright lights of the city illuminated the office. You’d pretended to be sleep for the past hour, you kept your breathing steady and occasionally peaked to see if he was getting tired too. You could tell Miguel was trying to fight off sleep by the drowsy droop of his eyes and hunch of his back. He yawned and his sharp canines gleamed. Your breath hitched at the sight of them and you tried to keep your breathing consistent. That quick glimpse of his fangs reminded you what could go wrong if you messed this up. He shut off his computer and placed the picture frame on his desk face down. “Buenas noches mi chiquita.” He said softly. Who was he talking to? You wondered, but caught yourself before you let your mind wander any further. You needed to focus. You kept your eyes closed and waited until his breathing had leveled out to open them again. When it did, you peered over at him. His arms were crossed and he was leaned back comfortably in his chair. You weren’t sure how much time had passed before you had worked up the courage to slowly stand up and wrap Miguel’s discarded web around your wrist so it wouldn’t drag along the floor behind you. You tip toed your way towards the door, making sure to not to disturb any of the toys that tripped you earlier.

You held your breath as you cracked open the office door painstakingly slowly and slipped out as soon as the gap was big enough for you to do so. You closed it behind you and as soon as it clicked shut, you took off. The compound was eerily still and quiet, the lively atmosphere had been drained from the walls and all that was left was the quiet echo of your footsteps and shallow breaths. You passed the restaurant from earlier so you knew you were going in the right direction. You skidded to a stop once you made it to an intersection. You came right left right on the way here so now…you looked down either hallway and bit your lip unsure of which way to go. You shook your head and decided to go left, since you were coming from the opposite direction. “Right then left”, you whispered to yourself when you came upon two more intersections and sprinted through the empty building until you made it back to the familiar storage room doors. “Damn it.” You hissed once you realized you didn’t have a watch to open the doors. Upon closer inspection, you saw one door was left slightly ajar, you tried to get a good grip with your fingertips on the edge and pry it open but to no avail.

There wasn’t enough space for you to get a solid hold on it. You stood there anxiously until you remembered the web wrapped around your wrist. Perfect. You yanked the other end off of your shoulder and slung it onto the door. It stuck! You took a few steps back and pulled as hard as you could. It didn’t budge. You turned around and pulled the string over your shoulder and trudged forward, slowly the door gave way and you internally rejoiced once you finally got it open wide enough for you to get inside. You wrapped the web back around your wrist and felt your way along the wall to find the lockers. There was barely enough light for you to see the labels engraved on them but you eventually found yours. You tapped the keypad and its faint blue light shone bright enough for you to see the letters and numbers on it. A888. You typed in the password and the locker popped open. You reached inside and found the duffle bag. The zipper was way louder than you expected it to be and you winced as it broke the silence. Your suit was neatly folded inside and you quickly put it on and put the straps of the duffle bag on your shoulders as if it were a backpack. Time to go. You weren’t really sure what direction would lead you out and away but you didn’t have time to think about that. You picked a random direction to go and you started swinging across the pillars with your borrowed web.

••●── 🕸️⋅🕷⋅🕸️ ──●••

Miguel opened one eye and scanned the room. You were gone. “Lyla.” He whispered. She flickered to life on the desk below and yawned. “Do you know what time it is?”

“Has ev-What? What do you mean, you don’t even sleep? Why the hell are you yawning?” She shrugged, “I like to pretend.”

He rolled his eyes. “Has everyone evacuated?” Lyla scrolled through her phone and gave him a thumbs up.

“Activate discrete lockdown.”

“Done.” She said as she followed him across the room. “Are you sure you can catch her? You’ve given her quite the head start.”

Miguel cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders as he stepped out of the office.

“Sin duda.”

••●── 🕸️⋅🕷⋅🕸️ ──●••

Thanks again for reading!!

Tag list @mynameiswilliamblake

#miguel o’hara fanfic #miguel o’hara x fem!reader #miguel spiderman #miguel spider man 2099 #miguel spiderverse #miguel o’hara fic #miguel o’hara x y/n #miguel o’hara x reader #miguel o'hara #miguel across the spiderverse #miguel o’hara smut #spiderman 2099 #spiderman 2099 x you #miguel atsv

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artsie-rosie · 10 months

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some kitchen & cooking tips that helped me a lot lately!

I've always had the hardest heckin time with cooking and kitchen management. From deciding what to have as a meal to grocery shopping to actually cooking, every step of it was a source of stress, guilt and many other bad feelings. I was confused and disheartened and I felt so alone because I seemed to have the hardest time with something other people did so easily and casually.

After I came to terms with my neurospicyness, my wife introduced me to a facebook group called Executive Dysfunction Meals and it quite literally changed my life. Learning that I was not alone in this very specific struggles was so darn validating, and from there on I started learning and coming up with strategies to make my life in the kitchen bearable, and even fun (shocking, I know!).

I'm very passionate about paying forward and spreading help and information, so I'm gonna start typing down the strategies and tips that have helped me the most so far. I hope it may be of help to someone out there!

(Please note I am not a professional and I'm not claiming to know the best way to do anything, these are all just my personal experience.~)

Optimize your space (specifically for you): You know how fridges usually have a big drawer type of space specially for veggies? I used to put my veggies and greens there, but then my brain would magically Out-Of-Sight-Out-Of-Mind them away. Countless times I'd open the drawer up, weeks later, just to find rotten veggies and liquified greens. Then punish myself with guilt and anger... Until at some point we decided that enough was enough, that simply wasn't working out to our advantage, and we changed things up entirely: We started putting things that don't go bad in the big drawer, such as beverage cans, unopened juice boxes, pickled greens etc, and the veggies now go on the area just above, out in the open, so I can see them everytime I open up the fridge. I also have a little magnet whiteboard on the fridge's door, and whenever we do groceries I make a list of the stuff we have to consume quickly before it goes bad - visual cues help me quite a bit. I'm happy to say it's been quite a while since we've let greens go to waste!!!

Optimize your space (specifically for you) II: In the same logic as the item above, you can (and should) adapt your space to you, and not the other way around. I have a little stepladder that I use as a stool whenever I'm cooking or washing dishes, because it's hard for me to stand up for too long. Whenever I start using a utensil more often and it was initially stored behind doors or someplace hard to reach, I change things up to bring it closer and have it easily accessible. If I don't use something for more than a year, I put it away a little further away to free up space for something I use often. I'm always optimizing my space and keeping the things I use the most very easily accessible; it's not an easy process to change things up like this, but I promise the positive effects of this strategy are long lasting in my daily routine!

Learn the best way to freeze and use leftovers, vegetables and fruit, and adapt them to your routine: I freeze chopped bananas and avocados that would go bad otherwise, because I like turning them into smoothies. Leftover rice is saved to make fried rice which we love! Learning the best way to freeze broccoli was a game changer and it gave me a week of really nice quick meals! Google is your friend and there's so much handy info out there, being curious and adventurous really pays back in the kitchen.

Batch make and freeze sandwiches for a quick snack: I picked this tip up from the Exec Dysfunction Meals group! I've been doing it for a few weeks and it really helps. Whenever I feel like I have the extra spell slots, I make a couple more sandwiches than I would normally, put them in little freezer baggies and freeze them. Whenever my wife and I want a quick bite and don't feel like making anything, grabbing a sammich and popping it on our sandwich toaster is so easy and it makes a warm and crunchy meal. I've done it with ham, cheese and oregano, I have friends who do this with plain toast too.

Batch make garlic paste and chopped onions to freeze, for quick cooking starters: Yes I'm aware a lot of people speak against this, but hear me out. As a brazilian, a lot of my cooking starts with crushed garlic and chopped onions. Whenever possible, I do prefer these ingredients to be prepared and used as fresh as I can, but whenever the executive dysfunction or the joint pains hit, having these starters ready to go help a lot. For the garlic, I either crush or process a head of garlic or a handful of cloves finely with salt, then use silicon ice trays to freeze it into little cubes. For the onions, I chop them finely on the food processor, get rid of the excess water, put them into a freezer bag and use the dull side of a knife - or a spoon - to shape them into flat little squares (the flatter it is, the easier it will be to defrost and sauteé them). When it comes the time to get some rice or some stir fry started, I grab one little cube of garlic and one little square of onion and sauteé them; it's quick, easy, and effortless.

Process anything you can: This one is kind of specific, but for some reason I was raised to think that everything is better if it has a lot of effort involved, specially in the kitchen. That's the reason why I've hesitated so much to really put our food processor to use, and kept insisting to do a lot of things the "traditional" way. In the last few years I finally stopped pushing myself and now I use it to grate, slice, chop and blend everything I can. Being adventurous and figuring out in which ways can I put the processor to use instead of doing things by hand is a fun puzzle, too. Besides, a masterfully crafted meal with things finely chopped by my own hands won't help me at all if it never becomes a reality due to how tired or sore I feel to cook.

[I might either come back and add more to this post in the future, or reblog it to add more tips!]

#spoonies #executive dysfunction #kitchen tips #meal prep #chronic pain #mental health #chronic fatigue #executive dysfunction meals

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oggysonart · 2 years

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PSA real quick: Don’t buy art advice

I’m not talking about art tutorials or like supporting a tier on someone’s patreon to get feedback or stuff like that, that’s a different thing. This is also not about going to art school.

What I am talking about is stuff like online courses and books that people sell on topics like secrets to growing your art instagram, making loads of passive money off your work, stuff like that. It’s fake.

I’ve seen a disturbing amount of them appear which is why I’m making this PSA. There is no secret to growing your art instagram or making passive money off your art or kickstarting your freelance carreer. If the tips are legit, it’s out there for free if you look for it. We are already talking about it because we’re already doing it. People making these courses and selling these books are only sharing stuff you can already google yourself. These people are rarely making their livings as artists themselves, instead they’re just doing the art world version of get rich quick schemes, they’re praying on your passions and selling you advice that is either already publicly available, unhelpful or even just false.

I’ll give you some advice for free, kay?

Improving your art:

First and foremost working on improving your art should always be priority and you can find tutorials on any subject matter for free pretty much anywhere if you just google stuff like “how to draw a cloud”. Your art is what people will want to buy/see so keep improving it and keep making it if your goals is to build a carreer or an audience, there is no way around it.

Growing your audience

Straight up just engage with whichever app/site you’re using. Post good art yourself, but be a cheerleader for others first and foremost. Post consistently, not constantly, use appropriate tags, talk about your work in your descriptions and engage with people who engage with you. That stuff is in your control, the rest is honestly just luck. For some people it takes a long time, for others it’s a faster progress, there is no secret here, no one knows how to please the algorithm, we’re all just throwing crumbs out and hoping it gets eaten. Bots and promo bots will do more harm than good and spamming other people’s accounts asking them to check you out or tagging someone in your art that’s completely unrelated to them is just annoying. Just chill and post your art and have fun. Remember that social media should ‘t be a popularity contest, it should be social.

Making money

There are so many ways! I don’t even know half the ways and it depends what you want to achieve really. You can make money selling commissions, you can try to get a job at some sort of company, at which there are many who’d want to employ artists, games, films, animation, marketing, marketing departments in companies that otherwise do completely unrelated stuff, I’ve heard of an artist working fulltime at a science lab. There is room for you, you just need to find your industry. You can also license your work which is where the passive income comes in and there are a bunch of ways to do this too google it. You can be an illustrator for books or magazines, you can be a cartoonist for a paper, you can do logos or t-shirt designs and you can work freelance as pretty much whatever you want. It’s not going to be easy finding these jobs and most people do several jobs at once. It takes time to build up clientell and find your opportunities but a good place to start is straight up just googling “how to license my art” or “how to become a concept artist” or just straight up “how to make money as an artist.” It’s all out here.

I don’t have all the answers at hand and I’m too busy looking for all the resources for you. I bet other people will happily provide links and stuff, so feel free to share resources! My point id just this:

Everything is out there for free, google it.

#art #art industry #art advice #how to art #art tutorial #artist #work as an artist #make money as an artist #freelancing

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phrandallanton · 2 days

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do you have any tips on learning anatomy ?!1?1 im losing my mind over it 😿

Watch videos on YouTube about it or looking it up online, basic info I know. We live in the time where information is so exseable, use that to your advantage! The only place you should avoid is TikTok. Don't get me wrong there are some good creators on there but tutorials are better on YouTube and Google as I feel like they explain more. Here's some channels I recommend for not only learning anatomy but art as a whole:

Marc Brunet:

Draw like a sir:

tppo

As of tips I can bring to the table, the biggest one is don't stress over making things perfect! One of the reasons why I love the RANFREN style is how poorly drawn it is and that's what makes it look good. I know it sounds like an insult but it's not. The hands are always so effed up looking and that's my favorite part. Another example is Shin Chan. A lot of the adult's faces are always so wonky but it works and I love it.

Of course you need to learn the rules before you break them. Even the most exaggerated art use basic anatomy/fundamentals. But you don't always have to play by them. Art is subjective, you can draw a piece that has perfect anatomy and fundamentals and people may still not like it. Draw whatever looks good to you and makes you happy!

(This may differ though as if you want to get into a job where you have to draw in a sertant way/sertant thing the whole "I don't care what people think" isn't going to work. I personally do art as a hobby and never plan on doing it to appeal to others so I can bank off of it. If one day I can do that, cool. If not, also cool. That's how I see it! When it comes to trying to make art profitable a lot of creativity can be lost as most places don't want to take a risk of doing something that can effect them and the money. Little tangent, oops. But yeah, keep in mind that what I just typed out is coming more from a hobbyist stand point rather a professional one!)

Another thing is if there's something you don't like about your piece, then fix it. I use to say whatever when there was something I didn't necessarily like about my art because I didn't want to redo hours of work or mess up something, but trust me redoing it and getting it somewhere you like is so much better. Once again, the internet has lots of information to help so don't be shy to look up on how you can make something look to your liking. Criticism can also help with this. Always be open to constructive criticism when you're wanting to get better! Doesn't mean you have to apply said criticism to your art but it's still something you 100% should be open to.

Also with practicing try and do 30 minutes at a time and taking 15 minutes breaks in between. You're brain tends to absorb more information then studying for an hour straight. And don't push yourself to study every moment of your life. You should have a good balance of studying and free drawing. And please take breaks too. Burn out is not fun, it can take a long time to overcome it. (Coming from someone who experienced burn out for over a whole year.)

You also may not learn at it right away. Take your time and go easy on yourself! Don't compare your art to others as you have no clue how many hours they spent into practicing, and I assure you most artist have drawn stuff that looks horrible compared to what they post online. People will only post stuff they think looks good for the world to see. Your practice sketches aren't the best but it's one of the steps that's going to help you get where you want to be! <(＾⊆＾)_/¯

#Ask #Tips #art #digital art #drawing #artwork #Hope this helps!#info dump

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an-aroaces-harem · 2 months

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Ivy Chapter 5

DISCLAIMER: I just deepl and google translated my way through this because I wanted to know what’s going on, so there are definitely mistakes but I believe I managed the general gist of the story. Anyway, it’s just a fan-made translation solely for entertainment purposes. Morganatic Idol belongs to Cybird and ABC Frontier, Inc.

--My first weekend in the apartment was a wild one.

(The concert, the launch, and the outing with Ivy-san. It was like an out-of-this-world event.)

Monday morning at daybreak. I get ready to go to work and enter the living room to see ...

All the members were there.

Rina: Good morning.

Ivy: Good morning, Kawanaga-san. You're going to the office now?

Rina: Yes. You all ...

Finn: We've just had a lesson.

Jace: It's been a hard morning of choreography, and I'm exhausted~

Xeno: What are you talking about? Don't make a sound like this.

Hugh: ... was fun.

Despite their slight banter, exe shows no signs of fatigue from practice or the recent concert.

(As on would expect from a company with such an overcrowded schedule.)

Ivy: Ah, Kawanaga-san.

Ivy: Eito told me that the weekend show and the official distribution of the show were very well received.

Ivy: There's a special feeling that's different from broadcasting a program.

Jace: This is Aegis-chan's accomplishment, isn't it?

Rina: No, not at all. It was because of your excellent performance.

Finn: Well, yes, but I think you did a good job.

Hugh: Dance was easy to see ...

Jace: Even Xeno recognized you.

Xeno: I just said it wasn't bad tact.

Rina: Oh, thank you very much, everyone ...!

The gazes of the members are warmer than when I first came here.

(This was thanks to Ivy-san's recommendation to help with the live show.)

When I looked up at him with gratitude, he noticed my gaze and smiled at me.

Ivy: I'm happy for you, Kawanaga-san.

Rina: Thanks!

(Ivy-san has helped me a lot since day one. He helped me yesterday and even gave me a present.)

(You're a real sweetheart ...)

Ivy: You did a great job. Be confident and keep up the good work.

Rina: Yes, thank you very much, Ivy-san.

(I've been encouraged so much. I'll work harder for my presentation!)

I got into the mood and left the apartment to go to work myself.

The atmosphere in the company remains the same.

Mori Eiko: Kawanaga-san, put this data together. We'll need it this afternoon, so hurry up.

A document is placed in front of me.

Female Employee 1: And this script too.

Female Employee 2: And get me the other items on the list.

Mori Eiko: You can do it, can't you? All you're doing is easy stuff.

Female Employee 1: You have to do a lot of things to buy your way out of responsibility.

The words of Mori-san and the others prick me to the core. In fact, I feel like their words are getting tougher and harsher every day.

And then ...

Yamauchi Kota: Oh, come on, you can't just leave it all up to her, can you?

Yamauchi-san, a male employee of the department who was standing nearby, intervened, perhaps unable to see the piles of materials.

Yamauchi Kota: Are you okay? I'm free right now. Let me help you.

Rina: Thank you, Yamauchi-san, but I'm fine.

Yamauchi Kota: Eh?

When I replied with a smile, Yamauchi-san, Mori-san and the others looked at me in surprise.

(I would've been depressed before ...)

What comes to mind are the words and smiles of Ivy-san.

--flashback--

Ivy: Good luck to you too.

--flashback end--

(I can't let this get me down!)

Rina: I'll put them together as soon as I can. Please wait a moment while I compile them.

Mori Eiko: I'm telling you, don't neglect your other work.

Rina: Of course. I'll have it done by the end of the day.

I set to work at a furious pace.

Mori Eiko: Something's off ...

I was so motivated that I didn't mind the coughing.

I was able to complete my work without overtime for the work I was assigned to do.

(Next is housekeeping. Let's do this job well too.)

Today, the exe members have their own jobs and have not yet returned home.

Only Sakura-san was home before me, but he seemed to have been locked in his room for work.

The cleaning was completed smoothly, the tools were put away, and I was able to breathe a sigh of relief.

(I'm done with work, I'll go to my room and look up exe ...)

That's what I think.

Hitaki: Hey, you're here too.

Hitaki-san from Gem appeared in the living room.

Rina: Hitaki-san, you're here.

Hitaki: I was in the training room until now because I finished work early.

Hitaki: By the way, I heard about M-fest. Apparently, you played a very active role as a staff member.

Rina: Ah no, no. I was just doing my job.

Hitaki: Eito-san also complimented you on how well it went.

Hitaki: I've never worked behind the scenes of a live before, but you did a great job.

Rina: T-thank you ...

Hitaki-san's straightforward compliment made me feel embarrassed but happy.

Hitaki: That was a little surprising. But also interesting ...

While staring at me, Hitaki-san caughed quietly to himself.

(Hm? What did he just say? I didn't quite catch it ...)

Hitaki: I've been meaning to apologize to you. I'm sorry about the other day. Miu was rude.

Hitaki: Dazed and distracted, dull ...

I think he is referring to the night when Ivy-san recoomended me to help with the distribution.

(Sure, Miu-san said some harsh things to me with a smile ...)

Rina: I don't care anymore. Besides, there's no need for you to apologize.

Hitaki: I'm the leader. If a team member does something, it's my responsibility.

Hitaki: I'll let them know that they won't say anything bad to you from now on.

Hitaki-san smiled calmly, as if to reassure me. I could see the sense of responsibility that comes with being a leader.

(Miu-san is a bit mysterious, and Nagi-san is a bit scary ... I thought Gem's members had strong habits.)

(But Hitaki-san might be a nice and kind person.)

Hitaki: You said you wanted to know more about exe. How was it seeing them live and up close?

Rina: Of course it was great! Everything was so powerful, the singing, the dancing, the direction, everything was outstanding ...

Rina: The performance was so outstanding that even an amateur like me could understand it.

Hitaki: I saw the video of the distribution, and I thought it was great, if a little frustrating for Gem.

(But ...)

What comes to mind is that strange feeling I had when I saw Ivy-san on stage.

(Yes, it was nice, but Ivy-san was different at that time.)

In a sense, it may be natural that their stage appearance is different from their everyday appearance.

But I think that feeling was different from that.

I don't know what it is, but it has always stuck with me.

Then, there was a flurry of footsteps.

Sakura Eito: Kawanaga-chan and Hitaki? That's a rare combination.

It was Sakura-san who appeared.

Hitaki: We ran into each other by chance and had a little chat.

Hitaki: What's going on, by the way? You seem upset.

Rina: What's wrong?

Sakura Eito: I had to confirm something with Ivy at work.

Sakura Eito: I need to see the paperwork by tomorrow but ... he'll be up all night in the recording studio tonight.

Sakura Eito: I thought I'd ask someone to deliver it to the studio for me.

Hitaki: I see. That's what you meant.

(Ivy-san, it must be tough to work all night.)

Sakura Eito: But at a time like this, none of the staff would catch on.

Sakura Eito: I don't have time to deliver it, and I was going to look for someone.

I called out to Sakura-san when I saw him in trouble.

Rina: Um, Sakura-san. If you don't mind ...

... a few dozen minutes later.

I was visiting the recording studio where Ivy-san was working on behalf of Sakura-san.

Ivy-san lowered his eyebrows, feeling sorry when he saw me working alone in the studio.

Ivy: Eito called me just now. I'm sorry to have bothered you.

Ivy: It's not at all nice of Eito to send you out here so late at night ...

Rina: No, I said I'd go.

Sakura-san was rather reluctant to take the risk because it was late at night, but in the end he said he'd take care of it.

(I bet he was really full of work.)

(And HItaki-san was also concerned and offered to accompany me.)

I was grateful, but declined, as I felt bad that he still had more training to.

Rina: It's not that far away, so it's okay. Beisdes ...

Rina: I was also curious to know how you were doing, Ivy-san. I was told it would take all night.

Ivy: Oh well ... thank you for your concern.

Ivy: I'm sorry but thank you for your help. Both Eito and I have a lot to do tonight.

Ivy: I think that's why I've been working so hard to get the job done.

Ivy-san laughed.

Rina: It sounds like a lot of work. Can I ask you what you were doing?

Ivy: Yeah, I was working on the next new song.

Rina: What already? You just released a new song a couple of weeks ago.

Ivy: Well, we might be the ones who have a quick release span, but we've got a lot of tie-ups.

Ivy: I can't help but match it.

(exe ... but that would be a lot of work. It's a constant songwriting process.)

Looking at the desk where Ivy-san was sitting, there were writing utensils, notebooks, music equipment, and other miscellaneous items on it.

It was as if I could see his struggle as a composer.

Rina: Ivy-san is terrific.

Ivy: Eh?

Rina: Not only is he an idol, he can also write such great songs.

Rina: The song you performed at the concert the other night is getting a lot of play.

Rina: I think it's really great to be recognized by so many people like that.

exe is, after all, a group of people each of whom has great abilities.

Seeing them live made me understand them better.

Rina: I'm looking forward to your next song.

Ivy: Thank you, Kawanaga-san.

Ivy: Next song too, huh?

He smiled ... but his smile was different.

Ivy-san ...? What's going on?

Somewhat tired and sad.

I gasped when I saw Ivy-san's shadow for the first time ...

#morganatic idol #morudoru #morudoru ivy #resa translates something for once?

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bonesandthebees · 11 months

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I would love some makeup and skincare tips if you're willing :)

-🌼

of course!! (these answers are very general/assuming you're starting from the very beginning. if you want more specific advice lmk just give me more specific questions)

so I've talked about skincare on here before so I'll put that at the bottom of this ask, and I'll start with make up instead this time

makeup takes a learning curve to figure out how to use. there's no getting around that. it took years for me to figure out makeup stuff and I started playing around with it when I was only 12-13ish. don't feel embarrassed if your makeup doesn't turn out how you want. depending on what you're doing, you're basically learning how to paint but, like, really specifically and only on your face. it takes practice and that's ok! if you're embarrassed about people seeing you with makeup on, just do it alone in your room. the only reason I got good at winged eyeliner was because I made myself do makeup every day during the first quarantine era of covid so that I'd have a daily routine established and wouldn't just sit in pajamas in bed all day. I wasn't going out at all, so I made myself do winged eyeliner every time bc I knew no one was gonna see it, and it didn't take long for me to get good at it. so practice when you're alone and wipe it off when you're done. you'll figure it out eventually.

now as far as what kind of makeup to do on your face. well, that depends on what you're trying to achieve with makeup. do you want to cover up acne? do you want to do fun eyeshadow and eyeliner? do you want to enhance your natural features? if you're completely new to makeup I'd recommend starting with the basics of just trying to enhance your natural features. that's usually very simple and easy makeup that'll help you learn the foundations of it all so you can build up from there.

'natural' makeup routines that you read about online are probably going to consist of some kind of tinted moisturizer, maybe some concealer, maybe mascara, and probably a bit of blush. it depends on how much you want to do. if you're going for something with more coverage to cover up acne, look for foundation instead of tinted moisturizer.

if you're just starting out you're probably going to want to go for drugstore makeup instead of the expensive stuff. maybelline anti-age rewind multi-use concealer has been my go to concealer for years now. elf as a whole is a really low-priced and generally well recommended makeup brand with a lot of variety to what they sell. for whichever product you're trying to get, tbh just google 'best drugstore brand [insert product here]' and you'll find a ton of magazine articles pop up with recommendations.

last tips for now. here's what you don't need when you're just starting out: primer (you are probably not going to be doing heavy daily makeup right off the bat it's not worth it in that case). look, I know everyone talks about primer being amazing. but I basically never use foundation or tinted moisturizer, I just use concealer. so it's very unnecessary for me. later on you might find you need it, but at the start I promise you don't

hope that helps with some makeup stuff! skincare info below!

okay so for skincare, I've found that it's easiest to build a routine one step at a time. don't feel like you have to rush into everything all at once. first get into the habit of washing your face every morning and night if you don't already. make sure you have a good facial cleanser that's suited to your skin type (please don't use body soap for your face). cetaphil and cerave are both very highly rated drugstore skincare brands that have a lot of options for face cleansers for all skin types (oily, dry, sensitive, etc). then you need a moisturizer. again, I recommend either cetaphil or cerave to start off with bc of their low price point and how highly rated their products are. I use cetaphil daily face cleanser and cetaphil's daily oil free moisturizer with spf 35. definitely try to get one with spf in it because sun protection is the other essential part of a bare bones skincare routine. when looking for a face moisturizer, try to go for ones that say they're non-comedogenic which means they won't clog your pores. oil-free is probably preferable too especially if you have acne.

after you have the basics you can get into other stuff! this stuff is going to depend on what skin issues you have. there are a whole lot of serums out there you can look into (niacinamide I think is one of the best serums for most skin types and you can get a bottle of it from both good molecules or the ordinary for like $6). different serums are formulated to target different things, so again try to google stuff to see what might be most helpful for you. skincare brands besides cetaphil and cerave that I think are good to start out with is the ordinary (high quality at a very low price) and good molecules. neutrogena also has some pretty good products, and I really love elf's eye cream. but if you're really unsure where to start, the ordinary has an online quiz you can take on your site which will recommend products to you based off what you say your skin issues are, so even if you don't end up buying anything from them that can give you an idea of what products to start looking at.

#ask #daisy anon #skincare #makeup tips #skincare tips

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rare-language-resources · 1 year

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Need resources for learning a rare language? Here's where I suggest starting.

A guide to finding (free) resources for those with niche target languages.

Wikibooks! -> https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Subject:Languages

Wikibooks my beloved. There are books for a LOT of languages here, unfortunately not many of them are complete. It's always worth checking through though! Books are sorted by continent and completion. As far as I know, there's no standard template for these books, but most all of them are formatted like textbooks, with lessons, indexes, exercises, etc. Books might be slow to update but most of them aren't dead projects.

Omniglot! -> https://omniglot.com

This ugly little website is SO helpful for finding resources for a ton of languages. Unfortunately it's kind of hard to navigate, so I'd just search up "[target language] omniglot.com" and the page for your language should show up. Scroll to the bottom and boom there should be a list of resources for learning. This site also has some fun stuff like a list of proverbs in various language. I'd recommend browsing it for fun sometime :)

Youtube! (duh?)

Maybe this is a little obvious, but it's worth mentioning. Try searching stuff like "learn [target language]" or "[target language] lessons". Don't be discouraged if there aren't a lot of results though, that happened for me!

WIKTIONARY!! (my beloved) -> https://www.wiktionary.org

This is a big ol' multilingual online dictionary!! In my experience, most words/entries have an IPA transcription and declension/conjugation chart (if needed). Sometimes words even have audio files to go along with them. Wiktionary has a pretty handy way of categorizing stuff, too. Typically, there's a "Category: [Target Language]", and in that category there will be various sub-topics like phrases, colors, words for body parts, and even vulgarities (really this site has it all!). I might make an in-depth guide on how I use wiktionary at some point because it has seriously been such a lifesaver for me. Also see if they have a frequency list for your target language. Wiktionary sometimes has lists of the 1000(+) most commonly used words in a language. It might not have it for yours, but if it does that can be very helpful for learning vocab.

Tumblr!

Not always fruitful, and definitely not always easy to search, but this place has some hidden gems if you keep an eye out for them. Try searching basic tags like the name of your target language in it's language (sorry that's poorly phrased... I mean like if you're learning Turkish search the #Türkçe tag rather than just #Turkish). This is handy for finding content in your target language. Recently I found a link to a site that has a bunch of free dubs of cartoons and animes done in my target language. I've also found comics done in my target language. Also, just reading what people are posting in that language is helpful and a fun way to immerse yourself in the language. As long as the memes have words you're learning!!

Anki (and flashcard sites in general)!

A free app for mobile (though with free there's a limited amount of time you can use it daily). Anki lets you search for public decks that others have made for learning your target language. Even if you don't find a premade deck, I recommend keeping it around because this app is great for making flash cards. They have an integrated format for foreign language vocab but it basically fills in with Google Translate, so just watch out for the accuracy with that. Besides Anki try searching other flashcard sites like Quizlet (though you might need to pay for that now? not sure). Generally, searching "[target language] flashcards" into google will have some good results.

The CIA (well, Foreign Service Institute) -> https://www.fsi-language-courses.org/fsi-language-courses/, https://www.livelingua.com/fsi/

Free textbooks made by the American government to train spies and ambassadors? Released to the public? For free? Wowza! Admittedly a lot of these are pretty outdated, but a free textbook is a free textbook. If your target language isn't on one of the sites I linked, try googling "[target language] FSI course", "[target language] FSI pdf", etc.

Well that's all I can think of now but I might edit this later. Feel free to add on :)

Good luck to everyone trying to learn a niche language, I feel your pain!! Remember that there's always more stuff if you dig hard enough! Happy studying and hope this helps!!!

#guide #langblr #language learning

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princemick · 1 year

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hi kyle, please explain your process of making graphics! <3

hi anon! I definetely will, I'll walk you though how I get to a graphic like this:

(warning, half of my process is just 'throw it at the wall, see what happens' so like, idk how easily explainable it is.)

first off, I get all my inspiration from pintrest, instagram graphics artist and random stuff I find. inspiration is everywhere and I always keep a notebook with me where I draw/write what I come up with.

all my photo's are from pinterest and google, I dont sell these, if you're going to please make sure the photo's you're using are free use.

all my fonts come from dafont.

the program I use is photoshop.

now, I'm going to break up my editing process into 7 parts.

inspo

images

editing

colouring

font

colour blocking

textures

hopefully it's clear enough

gather inspiration.

so I really like this and this edit I made before and they're pretty easy so I wanted to make a new one.

but normally if I wanna make an edit I scroll through my poster/edit inspo pintrest board which you can find here.

normally if I dont have such a clear way I want to go I'd make some sketches to see what works and how to get the idea out of my brain.

2. gather images.

I wanted to make a Danny one so its not to hard to find stuff as I have a specific search for this edit but I also have a growing archive of folders of drivers full of pictures ive found over time that I'd normally go through to find good stuff.

when you use google please remember to click on 'tools' and select 'size' and big otherwise you'll cry because of the bad quality

this is the picture I wanted to use for the danny edit.

I thought this would work well because it has depth and so will show the colour blocking well, it also has the flag and the shoe which is clearly recognizable.

3. trow it into photoshop baybee.

this is going to be hard to explain but I basically jsut fuck around. most of the time I kind of know what I want to do and the way I want to go but one of the first steps is always to raserize the layer.

I also make sure to copy the original picture for later so you have the same picture twice

I do this so i can be lazy and go to quick actions and remove the background because then, I get this.

without basically any work. (it's almost never perfect so after I let photoshop do it's work I fix up the parts that need it.)

this is what your layers should look like fter.

that lil black and white thingy is really useful and if you select that and go over it w the erase tool it doesnt permenantly change anything.

next thing I do is smart sharpen to spice it up, here is the sharpening settings I use.

a small problem with this picture is that it's to small for an A4 size (which is what I'm making it on) so I need to extend the background a little. which I do in the laziest way.

I select the most of the top of the picture I can and copy paste + extend it out. like this:

then, for this edit, I'm gonna add a black and white filter to the background so everything behind daniel is in black and white with an adjustment layer. I do this to keep the focus on our subject and remove any and all focus from the bg.

I also add a guassian blur to the bg to once again, keep the focus on daniel.

this is the before and after of that.

now, kinda boring right? yeaaah so now onto

4. colouring

first off CLIPPING MASK IS YOUR BESTIE!!!. if you right click on the adjustment layer and click on clipping mask it will ONLY grab the picture right below it, this way it wont affect everything else you've added to your edit.

anwyay. this is the fun part, and the only way I can explain it, is fuck around, see what you wanna do and what works.

I always add, levels, curves etc to just deepen the blacks and add some contrast. heres the before and after of that.

for this edit I kind of wanna focus on the contrast of blue and orange, kinda like the seb one but a lil different so what I'm gonna do is add hue/saturation and remove the yellow and blue from the picture.

you use this adjustment layer by grabbing the little hand and selecting the colour you want to change.

so I'm gonna play around and remove the blue and yellow from this picture. here's the before and after of that.

now I'm going to add selective colour, i wanna up to an extreme the reds in the suit. this is kinda hard as you'll obviously grab his skin with that too so I'm gonna use that black little mask on this too, it already exists when you add an adjustment layer

it's that little white box, if you select that and ue the erase tool you can basically remove that adjustment layer in places you want to, this is what it looks like on my layers and on the picture.

I want to upp the red even more then this so I'm gonna copy paste that layer two more times and THEN add a non erased selective colour and play around with the depth of the skintone until I'm happy with it.

now I'm almost happy with the colour, I want it to be a bit more blue so I'm gonna go to 'colour balance' and play around with that a little more.

this is the before and after of all that

then I'm done with the colouring on the picture itself. I'm also gonna put all my adjustment layers into a folder to make my layers less busy

I'm also going to add noise to both the BG and front picture. it just gives a bit more texture and grain that I like

5. typography!

now the stressful part lol.

I know what I'm gonna add so that makes it easy. the name of the race, place and year. this is hard to explain, I know where I'm gonna put everything because off the other edits so it's just about finding a good font.

for this I'm not gonna fuck around with shapes and text layers and adjustments etc. if you want me to explain that please ask away that's just a whole other 5k worded essay.

I know what kinda font I wanna use at first already these choices have to do with a few things which is basically one questions I ask myself:

is there a vibe that already exists around the race and/or win and how do I translate that into the font? (is it fancy, cool, magical, incredible, bold etc etc)

here's an example of how a font can change the vibe

so the vibe I want to go with for this edit is fancy smansy n stuff so I'm thinking of flowly maybe 1930s vibes this is the font I ended up with

I'm still gonna move the place around but the idea if there.

(I change and play around with my text a lot so, again, ask if you want me to go deeper into this)

6. colour blocking

now for this edit I'm going to add a box of colour, I do this if I want to add a bit of an oomph and contrast to it, I like what I have now but I want to add some contrast to make the colour and him pop even more.

this is petty easy I'm basically just going to add a colour box behind him, I'm gonna do blue as well, thats the opposite of red on the colour wheel AND its the other colour red bull is associated with, also colour theory and all that etc.

I'm also going to add gaussian blur and noise to add some texture and use and overlay. heres the diff in with and without that to show the use of it.

at this point I'm also going to move the text around (as you can see) to make it fit better with the added box

7. texture

the moment where it starts feeling like its finished.

for this edit I kinda want to add some photo texture and more grain. here are the textures I used:

I added these and put it on a screen overlay layer and added some adjustement layers to tweek the last few things.

you can find different textures on google, pinstrest and some awesome artists have texture packs you can pay for w just a few bucks. for these, again, if you're going to sell your work MAKE SURE ITS FREE FOR USE!!!

THATS it!

I add my watermark and maybe fix a few little things but thats all and then I'm done, I reccommend playing around and seeing what works for you.

enjoy and have fun <33

#I dont know how clear this is BUT this is how I work so askjdbajksda #kyle.answers #design.stuff

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thelemoncoffee · 1 year

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okay so like- i keep seeing these videos of this cute trickster waitress bumping around on the internet, and through some digging i got both alot of and no context.

the girl's whole thing is she's dressed as a chinese trickster spirit with a mask of said spirit on (sometimes she also wears rollerskates), and she taps (or kisses the cheek of) her customer to engage them in a game with her. from my understanding while she's doing a little perfomance for them- be it pouring tea out of a long-spouted pot or popping beer bottles with her clipboard- the customer can offer her a bite of food, and if she takes it the customer can try and nab her spirit mask while she tries to jump away so they can't. i'm like 90% sure the goal of this is if you can take her mask fully off you get a free dish/drink, but it's really difficult to do it because of how quick she is.

the no conxtext part is i have no fucking clue if this is a full on restaurant chain gimmick or just something this one shop does, and nor do i know the details of how the rules and customer/waitress boundries are set up, or even if this a normal thing or a requestable perfomance or just her staging it. google is giving me nothing so i had to scrounge what info i do have out of youtube comments, reddit threads, and video context clues.

but- it's really neat and perfect for Saiouma cat and mouse shennanigans. i think this would be a fun scenario for them to meet under, maybe Shuichi getting dragged to the dinner by his friends cause they want him to get out more, and he finds himself the primary target of their trickster waitress (Kokichi crossdressing like a boss).

throughout out the night his friends try to get Kokichi's mask to no avail, and just before they're thinking about paying and heading out they manage to convince Shuichi to give it a shot. Shuichi gives it a try and actually fucking snags the mask, surprising everyone in the situation. as prize their table gets a desert on the house, but Shuichi also got a bonus prize in the form of Kokichi's number.

Shuichi now has the face of the cutest guy he's ever met living rent free in his mind, and said cute guy's number in his pocket- he has no fucking clue what to do about this and his friends are no help.

i do want to add that i think for the sake of making it easy, it'd make sense if this was a gimmick for one of those themed restauants Japan seems to have a decent sized marker for. having it be a clear gimmick people go there specifically to see at a place themed around it takes any weird customer/waitress consent stuff and makes it easier to deal with. you don't want a kitsune waitress messing with you? don't go to the kitsune waitresses who mess with you restaurant

regardless it's a delightful concept and i really like the mental image of Kokichi rollerskating around a restaurant with a kitsune outfit on getting paid to be a little shit while serving people food.

#danganronpa #ndrv3 #danganronpa v3 #kokichi ouma #shuichi saihara #saiouma #au prompt #au idea #au #kai prompts #funky shit go brr #this one's longer than they've been in a while

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imdoingsortagay · 2 years

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Haunted House Adventures

Summary: When the both of you have free time during a mission away, you decide it would be a good idea to take the former assassin to a haunted house, What’s the worst that could happen?

word count: 1.1k

a/n: i’ve never gone to one cause im a scardy cat but i thought this would be cute yet chaotic to write.

“ what’s the point of a haunted house?”

You roll your eyes again at Yelena's many questions as you walk to one of the most well-known haunted houses in the area, according to google reviews.

Both of you were sent to do a mission to get information on a guy down in Southern California and you thought it would be a good idea to bring the blonde alone to experience one of the many joys that came with Halloween!

Until she kept bombarding you with questions as a way to annoy you.

“ to be scared and have fun Lena “

“ Why do you need a house that’s haunted for that ?”

“ I don’t know “

“ But you have a phone to answer that question y/l/n”

“ Yelena shut up !” You yell at her, a bit annoyed with the questions and just wanting to go have fun for once. It was hard to be mad at her since this was stuff she wasn’t used to doing as she never got to have a normal childhood of sorts compared to you and you would be mad for a short time.

“ My bad y/l/n,” she says,” didn’t mean to piss you off”.

“ You are too cute to be mad at,” you tell her which elects a smile from her. Yelena makes her way closer to you, awkwardly but you accept her being close, and holds your hands in her own as the both of you continue to walk to where the haunted house is located.

Out of both of you, even if Yelena wasn’t showing it as she always wanted to appear as “ a cool badass”, she was kind of excited about the haunted house. Both she and Natasha never got to have a normal childhood so now that their out of the red room, working with the avengers it meant that they were able to do their own thing. While Natasha was taking it one day at a time when she was first out of the red room, Yelena had used whatever free time she had to try all these new things. When she and Kate met, the archer volunteered to show her all the many things New York had to offer. When both of them joined the Avengers, she instantly connected with you and since then, she’s only wanted to explore new things with you only.

“ omg y/n we are here,” she squeals in excitement as she sees the extravagant setup on the side of a big farm. From the many pictures that were shown to her by Kate when she was at her apartment, she was so excited to see how scared it would make her.

Lucky for the two of you, it was kind of early in the night, the sun just setting down so the line wasn't too long. Along with that, while you did find the place on google, it was Yelena who bought tickets online to avoid any sort of line which you thought was smart. Both of you were smiling like dorks compared to the minimum wage worker at the start of the haunted house who seemed to just not want to be there.

“ I hope you enjoy your scary spooky time, they say with a blank expressions on their face and a monotone tone. Even with that, you were both so excited to go in either way. Yelena made sure to stay close, feeling a bit scared at the darkness of the room while you were looking around at everything like a kid at the candy store. Either way, the blonde was so excited about this haunted house.

“ I swear she didn't mean to kick the poor dude in the stomach,” you try to explain as the rest of his coworkers try to ask if he was okay. It had been a good 10 minutes of going around the house when the poor dude must have caught poor Yelena off focus and on instinct, kick him in the stomach.

“ I am very sorry sir,” you can hear Yelena tell him as the owner of the place gives you a dirty look for the trouble you caused him.

“ What can we do sir? Trust me I have connections and we can solve this in an easy way,” you tell him

“ both of you are banned for life, if I see you try to come here I’ll call the cops,” he tells you and points to the exit. Yelena feeling sad about the whole thing, grabs your hands before you even try to start fighting the dude and causes more chaos. The walk back to the hotel room is silent, Yelena mostly choosing to hum a tum to fill in the silence and once you both make it back in, you decided to say something.

“ I'm sorry that i kicked the guy, “ she tells you, and the sad expression on her face doesn’t fail to make you give her a hug.

“ Yelena,” you start as you wipe the tears from her face,” I’m not mad at you, he caught you off guard and you just trusted your fight or flight in the moment.” While the moment was full of stress and chaos, years later it would just be a distant memory between the two of you that you could laugh about.

“ Can we do this again y/n?” she asks you and gives you puppy eyes, something that you can never say no to. It’s something that was taught to her by her older sister and she’s been using it to her advantage ever since. Curse the redhead for teaching her that move.

“ Maybe at the compound yeah,” you tell her.

“ Steve can dress up,” she recommends.

“At least if you beat him up it won’t cause him to go to the hospital,” you tell her, and about 3 weeks after the Haunted House incident, you were able to plan a haunted “ house” in the building with all the Avengers for Yelena after not being to fully experience one.

The smile on her face when she saw how nicely decorated the whole compound the place was, her teammate's dedication to being scary, and overall all the fun she had, it made it worth it. All this was worth it to see the smile on her face that you would do anything for her.

“ I can’t believe you did this for me y/n,” she says after going through it a couple of times, running at you in full force to give her a bear hug.

“ I would do anything for you Yelena,” you tell her and place a kiss on her forehead.

#lizs writing #liz celebrates #yelena belova #yelena belova x reader #mcu imagine #marvel imagine #yelena belova fluff

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